We look around us at the things going on in our nation today, and shake our heads sadly at the utter chaos and confusion that surrounds us on every side. How in the world did things ever get to this point? We are seeing rioting, burning, looting, and killing in the streets of our cities like never before. The police are being targeted by hate groups like Antifa and BLM, and city mayors and governors are cowering in their guarded homes instead of trying to stop the lawlessness, afraid of angering the mobs even more. We've seen corrupt politicians use the current chaos to stage a coup d'etat against a duly elected American president. Many are calling for the police to be defunded and disbanded. How did our nation - once the land of the free and the home of the brave - ever get in such a mess?

On the surface, the inexcuseable death of a suspect at the hands of a corrupt police officer was the cause of all this death and destruction. That was just an excuse, though. This lawlessness and anarchy actually started several decades ago, and has just gotten progressively worse and worse over the years. Sin always does, when left unchecked and unopposed.

When we look at the Scriptures in the book of Romans, and the progression of sin in Paul's culture, we see the exact same progression of sin in the culture we live in today. It begins with rebellion against Almighty God, our Creator. And the Bible is very clear: no one can say, "Well, I didn't know about God", because God made Himself known to all mankind, everywhere. Man has no excuse to not worship God. But sinful people choose rebellion instead of worship; ingratitude instead of thankfulness, and chase after their own desires rather than the desires of their Creator.

As a result of their rebellion, God "gave them over" to their own lusts of their sinful flesh. We see the same phrase is used in three successive stages (Romans 1:24, 26, and 28). As they abandoned God and viloated His laws, so He also abandoned them, withdrawing His favor and protection from them. Without God's protection, Satan has full reign in the lives of sinful mankind.

They dishonored their own bodies by their sexual immorality. Thus we see that the first step in the breakdown of any society is sexual immorality. God created sex to be the ultimate act of intimacy between a man and his wife, reflecting the relationship between Him and His people. Any sexual acts outside of the boundaries God established - which is within the bonds of holy matrimony - is immoral, whether it is premarital sex (fornication) or extra-marital sex, (adultery). And Scripture is quite clear that sexual sins are sins against one's own body:

As the sexual immorality worsens, the second step in the breakdown of society occurs: homosexuality begins to flourish, and attempts to even replace heterosexual behavior. The homosexual revolution began here in the United States in the late 60's, and has grown exponentially over the past 50 years. Their movement has expanded to include not just homosexuals and lesbians, but also transexuals, bisexual, transgender, and every other form of alternate sexuality anyone can think of. Gallup, one of biggest and most accurate research polls in the nation, shows that homosexuals comprise less than 4.5% of the population, yet they are one of the most vocal political action groups in the country, one that spends lots of time and money to target Christians and Christian businesses in the courts.

It is important to understand the danger of homosexuality to society. So many people say things like "Live and let live" or "What someone else does in their bedroom is no concern of mine" or "People have a right to love whoever they choose to love". But this kind of thinking doesn't acknowledge the detrimental effects of this perversion upon society.

First off, this is not just in their bedroom: they are on a crusade to force everyone to accept their lifestyle and their perversion. They do not want equal rights, they want their rights elevated above all others. They are taking small businesses to court, destroying lives and businesses, trying to force them to violate their own deeply held, Godly beliefs. Anyone disapproving or disagreeing with homosexuality is now guilty of a "hate crime". They have been trying to silence pastors from preaching on the evils of homosexuality. In Houston, they tried to pass a law forcing pastors to submit their sermon notes for approval, to censor what was being preached. (I love that hundreds of pastors responded by sending the mayor a Bible, saying their sermon notes were in there!) In other words, Christians are no longer free to hold onto our beliefs and standards, only those of the homosexaul movement are considered to be valid. In fact, during her campaign for President, Hillary Clinton freely declared that Christians are just going to have to change their deeply held religious beliefs and cultural codes.

Secondly, homosexuality completely undermines the family unit, which is God's chosen manner of building and sustaining society. To flourish and grow into a well functioning adult, every child needs two parents, both a male and a female. Each teaches the child different things in different ways, but both are necessary for a child to develop properly. All training begins in the home. This religious training is so important, it was one of the first instructions God gave:

Thirdly, homosexuals cannot produce children, at least not with a same sex partner. Therefore, since they cannot reproduce, they have to rely on other means to further the homosexual agenda and lifestyle in the next generation. How do they do that? By indoctrinating children into their perversion. We've seen so many children's books and movies in the last few years that feature homosexual characters and "normalize" homosexuality to our children and grandchildren. We've seen the rise of things like drag queen story hour in public libraries across the country. We see instruction in homosexuality in even grade schools.

Our children are not allowed to be innocent and develop at their own speed; their innocence is exploited and they are indoctrinated at every turn. Our children are even being taught that they can decide their own gender, they do not have to be a boy or a girl, they can be anything they want. Child pornography is at an all time level. There is nothing sacred, nothing that they will not subject to these vile practices.

Persons who are wholly given over to their sins and perversions, being completely unrepentant, and not wishing to change their lusts naturally do not want to hear the call of the Holy Spirit to repentence. They want to remove all mention of God, deny the authenticity of the Bible as the Word of God, and deny the power of the Holy Spirit. They refuse to accept any restrictions on their behavior, no matter how outrageous it may be to the largest majority of the population. We have seen this going on in our country for decades now. Thus the third and final step in the breakdown of society. The godlessness flourishes, and people are filled with every kind of unrighteousness known to man.

We see the same things in our times that Paul wrote about in Scripture. Hatred and murder abound. Over the Fourth of July weekend, there were more than 80 people shot in Chicago alone; 15 died, including 6 children. Other cities across the nation logged similar statistics. People are more and more filled with every manner of unrighteousness and maliciousness. People are far more unloving and have no natural affections; they are unmerciful and uncompassionate toward others. And they actively work to encourage others to partake of their sin, taking pleasure from the sins of others.

This is exactly where we are today in our society. We have turned away from God and His holy word. We have failed to uphold His standards and neglected His teachings ourselves, and have failed to teach His word to the next generation. We have caved in to demands that God's precepts be eliminated from society, and have believed the lie that God's plan for the family and for society is somehow wicked and hateful. We are seeing the effects of all these things in our society today. There is no moral compass, no virtue, no sense of right and wrong, it's more like "anything goes". Our society is "going to hell in a handbasket', to use an old phrase.

We know from Scripture that God is not willing for any to perish in their sin; He does not want anyone to die without accepting Jesus and having their sins forgiven. But He cannot save those who do not want to be saved. They would rather follow their own desires than follow God's plan thus becoming their own god. Their own sins separate them from God.

Sin never lets up. It wiill continue unchecked if we - the people of God - continue to try to co-exist with it. Yes, we are to love everyone, but we must not tolerate their sin. Love does not require allowing things that God says are wrong. In fact, it is very UN-loving to allow people to continue on the path to ruin without trying to show them the error of their ways.